Experimental exhibition brings artist’s studio into Roots Gallery

Audience members are invited to listen to traditional West African stories, and contribute their own stories, poems or fairytales if they choose. This event is free to attend and family friendly, no booking is necessary.

'Notes from Sierra Leone' is an experimental exhibition, transforming Roots Gallery into a hybrid artistic ideas lab and inviting the audience to contribute to the development of an ongoing project.

In 2011, photographer Julia Frost and artist Sian Conway lived and worked as artists in residence in York Village, Sierra Leone, where their work explored traditional Creole culture, the role of artists in social recovery and community development.

Through a combination of artistic practice and teaching, they created a body of work which they are now hoping to develop into a larger project through audience contribution, reflection and continued production.

This body of work will be shown and developed in Roots Gallery for the duration of this exhibition, and audiences will have the opportunity to interact, engage and contribute through a variety of media and experimental processes.

Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, was founded in 1787, as a home for repatriated former slaves, and from this the Creole culture developed.  Through their work, both artists explore this culture and examine attempts to preserve tradition in developing countries. Sian Conway is particularly interested in exploring links with her home town of Hull, which is twinned with Freetown because it is the birthplace of William Wilberforce, who was instrumental in the abolition of the slave trade.

Having emerged from civil war in 2002, Sierra Leone is now in the process of extensive social recovery, and both artists explore the role that they, and other creative practitioners, may play in this process.

The exhibition will then run from 13 August - 7 September 2012. Gallery opening times vary, please see http://www.rootsgallery.co.uk/ for more details.